The breaking of the news that Bangladesh has slipped 16 notches down in Global Hunger Index-2015 resting the county’s position at 73rd has come as a big shock to the nation. It shows that Bangladesh with 27.3 percent score is still one of those countries suffering from ‘alarming level of hunger’, as the disclosure in the GHI report published on Monday said. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Concern Worldwide made the ranking. Bangladesh ranked 57th in 2014 GHI index. Although Bangladesh showed tremendous progress during the past 25 years reducing hunger by big 47.9 percent, the losing of points this year instead of showing further improvement is cause for alarm. It is rather surprising when the country is producing enough food to export the surplus rice.
We believe that there can’t be any significant reason except big distributional impediment in supply chain to reach food to the extreme poor or shortage of cash in the hands of the extreme poor is aggravating the rating on hunger as they are failing to buy enough food. This can’t be a valid reason when the government agencies are claiming that all vulnerable people are enjoying food security under one or another social safety network.
This report should be a wake-up call to the government as they need to check where the loopholes lies to improve the effectiveness of its food security programmes. NGOs working on food security issues also need to take up a review of the situation in the ground. The Prime Minister vowed only few days back to establish a poverty and hunger-free country and the disclosure seems to have come as a big boomerang to the government and also to the nation as a whole. But there is no denying of the fact that Bangladesh is still having half of the world’s malnourished children with high levels of malnutrition from vitamin and protein deficiency. In this situation, the disclosure that the hunger rate is increasing in the country instead of falling is highly dismaying.
With high poverty and unemployment, it is no surprise that large numbers of Bangladeshis are not eating enough to have the required amount of nutrients in their diets. It proves the government’s claim that it is doing enough to ensure food security to the poor is misleading. Moreover it raises question as to where the food supply or cash for the poor under safety net programmes is missing instead of reaching the poor forcing them to eat less to remain partly hungry in their daily life.
We suggest the government to make nutritious food available to the poor at affordable prices while making sure that people engaged in food and cash distribution channel are not misusing the system. Not only the government, NGOs working to beef up food security of the poor also need to review their activities to improve the country’s position in global hunger index. Their contributions must be visible when the index is deteriorating for Bangladesh.
